Learning to Love North Dakota

7 months into my North Dakota life and its feeling more and more like a relationship. I wonder if those who move alot find that they develop feelings towards a place as if its someone they are developing a relationship with, I do.

When I arrived I was enchanted with the possibilites, the open space, and the rementants of summer. The enchantment turned to realism, the realism turned to envisioning our future and now I am seeing those parts I adore in stark contrast with those I really hate. As with most relationships its now a point when I have the choice, do those parts I hate have the power to end this or do the parts I love outweigh and triumph. I am not sure I know the answer. My glass half full self wants to share those parts I just love.

1. Auctions - There are an abundance of these year round, selling everything from Applebes's decorations, to homes to cattle
2. Elderly couples who go on dates at the bowling ally bar, he helps her with her coat and holds out her chair
3. The never ending activity at every place in town, any place any time its happening
4. The hoopla over a new restaurant, we just got a pita pit and people cant control their excitement
5. The decorative gardening in the summers
6. A fantastic public library
7. The Brew (even if 1/2 the people there somehow burn the coffee)
8. Free games of bowling on the back of your grocery receipts ( I currently have 5 in my purse) 
9. The sky that goes on forever, you can see celestial events from our apartment window
10. The Italian restaurant in the hallway of the shopping center
11. We have a university that's in town, and all of town in less than 10 miles away
12. Theodore Roosevelt National Park
13. The Jefferson Hour on Prairie Public